1. I asked, "What is love?" I said, "Emotions
Of various kinds centered in the heart."

2. She asked, "But what is its essence?" I said, "It has
No essence that can be known or measured."

3. And everyone has a love because the
Conflicting emotions cannot be captured in words or books.

4. I fell silent. She responded, "Say something!"
So I said, "Did I not say emotions of the heart?

5. Some are gentle and sweet, some flow
Like molten fire, some comfort the longing soul,

6. For love is the bond of the whole universe,
Even rocks and towering mountains are touched by it.

7. The spheres of the world were set in orbits,
Arranged in order with love at the axis,

8. Maintaining balance between the worlds
So that they have meaning as the Lord created them.

9. Its secrets lie in the two forces—attraction and repulsion—
Which teach us nothing more though we seek knowledge.

10. Whoever understood true beauty invited it in,
And love made its home within them.

11. Yet there is no coercion, for it comes
Freely, not imposed, invalidating imposition.

12. My words did not satisfy her. She turned to me,
Her soft, moist cheek against mine, and said

13. "Stop this talk! It fills my heart with dread."
I said, "Ask the birds in their thickets,

14. When they play, what stirs them in their play?
Ask the garden's flowers about their scents

15. When the wind stirs the boughs of the wounded trees.
Ask the morning breeze, sighing lightly,

16. Stirring the flowers and grasses.
Ask the streams what they say

17. To the banks, and what do the banks say back?
Ask seedlings bursting from the soil—

18. Weren't they formed from love? How did love grow?
Ask the surging waves calling out

19. In rhyme to the rhythm of the clouds.
Ask the shining stars with the moon between them

20. Appearing—how does the flock harmonize?
Ask the rock watered by the mist's tears

21. As it crouches happily with grass above it.
Ask the sun setting into the sea, her husband—

22. Why did they quarrel as evening came?
Ask the frightened night over the fading moon

23. As if she had lost a dear one.
Ask the dawn weeping, ask the horizon by name,

24. Ask the light flowing and pouring over the worlds.
Ask your listening heart, ask your soul

25. That aspires like my heart aspires.
Ask religion and worldly life, ask earth and heaven,

26. Ask the one who has a heart, and one who has no heart—
They will tell you love is a mystery

27. Whose meanings are visible, though its essence is veiled."
She wavered as if to cry but did not sob,

28. And said, "What then, after all this, is love?"